London: Shopping in Japan could soon
become a lot easier with a department store enrolling the
services of a speech-recognising robot, which is capable of
directing consumers to the relevant floors and making small
talk in between.
Shopping has never been easy in Tokyo, with people
often queuing for days to try to grab the first copy of a new
video game or mobile phone. Crowds of middle-aged women,
desperate for the biggest discounts on the latest crockery and
washing machines, often swamp newly-opened department stores.
Department store Takashimaya decided to enroll the
services of a speech-recognising fembot Saya in a bid to make
it easier to deal with Tokyo’s masses of shoppers, the Daily
Telegraph has reported.
Developed by Hiroshi Kobayashi of the Tokyo University
of Science in 2004, the fembot had till recently been involved
in a trial at a Tokyo primary school. It was was capable of
catching students passing notes and copying homework as well
as giving them a rather stern telling off.
Saya then began "working" at Takashimaya in Ginza
where she sits at the store's information desk. For a week in
October shoppers were treated to a very different kind of
store assistant.
Saya is capable of responding to shoppers’ questions
and complaints in more than 700 different ways, directing them
to the relevant floors and making small talk in between, the
report said.
However, the fembot doesn’t seem to have thrown the
Japanese sense of politeness, with many shoppers bowing to the
robotic aid after they were given direction.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 14:18